Saturday, October 14

Battle for Backups

Not much news to report on the Sonics front with the exception of a nice story in the PI about Kareem Rush and Earl Watson returning to Kansas City. Kudos to Gary Washburn for finding a story most people would have skipped - I'll bet 90% of us thought of Nick Collison when the words "Kansas" and "Sonics" appeared in the same sentence, but Washburn delved deeper and found two guys with stronger ties than Nick to the area.

With no games to review, let's take a look at how the battle for the final roster spots are going for the Sonics thus far. As I see it, the following guys are locked in for the season:

That's 12 people, leaving 2 or 3 open slots. Of those 12, they break down this way by position:

PG - 2SG - 3SF - 3PF - 3C - 3

(Some guys can play multiple positions, so it's not faulty math on my part).

The Sonics will likely carry 13 or 14 guys, including the "King of DNP-CD" Danny Fortson, at least until he's moved to somebody else by midseason. That means the rest of the guys on the training roster are competing for 1 or 2 spots. Here are the competitors (And wouldn't this make a better reality show than most of the crap out there? Really, do we need 2 nanny shows?)

The last bit in each line is my guess at the odds of each making the roster. Palacio and Rush have a leg up on the rest with their relatively extensive NBA experience, but the fact Milt's only gotten 8 minutes in the first two games shows where he ranks in my mind. Wilks' presence on the roster last season should be an edge for him, and Brown's extensive minutes in the Portland game shows how the staff seems to like him.

Obviously, this is a total crapshoot at this point, and the ends of the roster have (almost) zero influence on how many games the Sonics will win, but, hey, it's a Saturday and there isn't a whole lot else to talk about, so there you go.

Fortson will be with the team through the season, barring a VERY significant trade. His large expiring contract is a great commodity that needs to either be traded to somebody to get a major talent, or kept to season's end to actually have money to sign a player who is better than a "mid-level exception" type of guy.